Rare Marvel Comics #1 'pay copy' auctioned for $2.4 million

March 22 (UPI) -- The ultra-rare "pay copy" of 1939's Marvel Comics #1 sold for more than $2.4 million in an action.

Auction site ComicConnect said the rare comic book, which features the first appearances characters Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch (an android precursor to the more well-known Marvel character from the Fantastic Four), sold for $2,427,777.65 after 33 bids.

The comic book, published by Timely Comics, which later became Marvel Comics, is known as the "pay copy," because it contains annotations by publisher Lloyd Jacquet revealing how much was owed to the book's contributors.

The "pay copy" of Marvel Comics #1 has changed hands multiple times since being discovered in a filing cabinet in the 1990s. It was sold for $227,050 in 2010.

Stephen Fishler, the chief executive of ComicConnect, said the buyer in the most recent auction wished to remain anonymous, but he described the collector as a man in his 40s who lives outside the United States.